Gas tax to rise 10 percent Monday

The already high gas prices in San Diego will get another boost on Monday, when the state raises the tax it charges on a gallon of gas.

In February, the California Board of Equalization voted to raise the excise tax on a gallon of regular gas from 36 cents per gallon to 39.5 cents per gallon, largely to make up for tax-revenue shortfalls in previous years. The new tax rate begins July 1. The taxes are figured into the posted price, so you won’t notice the extra charges on your receipt.

Come Monday, Californians on average will pay 72 cents in federal and state excise and sales taxes on a gallon of gas, the highest in the nation. Across the country, the average tax on a gallon of gas is 49 cents. New York is second with 68.9 cents, while Alaska is lowest at 26.4 cents, the American Petroleum Institute reports.

A person who drives 15,000 miles a year at 20 miles per gallon would pay an extra $26.25 per year in gas taxes. That’s on top of the roughly $478 per year in state, federal and sales taxes. That doesn’t include local sales taxes, such as the half-cent San Diego charges.

Gas prices in San Diego County are up from a year ago, the Auto Club of Southern California reports. On Friday, the average price for a regular gallon of gas was $4.074. That’s down one cent from a week ago but up 30 cents from 2012 at this time. Last week, ExxonMobil confirmed the shutdown of crude distillation units at its Torrance refinery, which has reduced production significantly from the 150,000 barrel-a-day-capacity.

Marie Montgomery, a spokeswoman for the auto club, said wholesale prices spiked about 70 cents last week but then dropped back quickly, meaning there could be some relief as the summer progresses. She said the auto club forecasts 2.32 million Southern Californians to travel by car over the July 4th weekend. That’s down slightly from last year, but largely because of the way the auto club calculated the driving weekend in 2012, when July 4 fell on a Wednesday.

Alison ApRoberts, spokeswoman for the California Energy Commission, said current gasoline supply is ample.

“We don’t look to be in a precarious situation at all in terms of gasoline supplies,” she said. “That said, we have no crystal ball.”

The publicly elected Board of Equalization voted 3-2 to raise the tax on Feb. 28 because the state requires it to set the rate to make up for past shortfalls and projections of falling consumption. In 2010, the state Legislature switched its gas taxation system so it could shift some of the gas tax money from road maintenance to other areas. In doing so, it reduced the sales tax from 8.25 percent to 2.25 percent, but roughly doubled the excise tax to 35.3 cents. The tax has increased since, but only by fractions of cents.

An excise tax is a placed on an individual product purchase, and not based on its price. The problem is that people are driving less, as gas prices increase and hybrid cars become more common. The Toyota Prius is routinely the best-selling car in the county, the San Diego County New Car Dealers Association reports.